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PinnergyShalewater CEO Randy Taylor says interest in water reclamation is growing among… more

Robert E Daemmrich

Pinnergy Ltd. and Shalewater Solutions LLC this week launched an Austin-based joint venture to help oil-and-gas operations in the Eagle Ford Shale and other Texas shale plays manage the water they use in the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, process.

PinnergyShalewater CEO Randy Taylor says interest in water reclamation is growing among… more

Robert E Daemmrich

We asked Randy Taylor, CEO of the newly formed PennergyShalewater LLC, to talk about the business of treating and disposing of water used in the fracking of oil-and-gas wells and about the venture’s South Texas plans.

Q: Both of your companies have been involved in water management in shale plays. Why did you decide to form this partnership?

A: Shalewater has been doing water reclamation in the Marcellus area in West Virgina for a few years. At the time we started talking to them, they’d probably done 11 million barrels of reclamation in that area, so obviously they know what they’re doing. Pinnergy has been in all the Texas and Louisiana shale basins for many, many years. Pinnergy are in the water and fluids business, but we needed that missing piece of the puzzle, which is water reclamation — and Shalewater had that technology but wasn’t in Texas. So it made it good sense to couple their technology and abilities with out footprint throughout Texas and Louisiana.

Q: Does that mean the partnership will be developing some kind of reclamation facility in the Eagle Ford?

A: We hope so. These things are mobile, so we can set them up in one place and treat the water then transport by pipeline or truck back to the actual frac facilities — because this reclaimed water is used for fracking. Or we can also take these mobile units out to an operator’s location so that when the water’s reclaimed, it can be transported though some kind of piping or pipeline to the next frac job. Each of these units can reclaim up to 20,000 barrels of fluid per day, so they’re very, very high volume.

Q: Are we seeing more companies opt for frac-water reclamation over disposal in South Texas?

A: I think you’ll see a combination of both, which is one of the reasons we were interested in this joint venture. The water reclamation goes hand-in-hand with our disposal operations and trucking operations. We’re looking at a total water-management system, from start to finish. Water can be reclaimed and used for fracking the next well, but there will be times water needs to be disposed of, so you really need both.

Q: Do you anticipate additional hiring as a result of this venture?

A: Oh, yes. We will be hiring. Each of these units will have 10 to 15 people working with it.

Q: How many of the units do you plan to deploy in the Eagle Ford Shale?

A: I don’t know the answer to that yet. Our first one deployed in Texas is in the Permian Basin. We’ve only been out there a month, but we’ve treated about 500,000 barrels. We’re talking to our customer base throughout the Texas basins but certainly talking to a lot of them that have significant operations in the Eagle Ford.

Q: So it sounds like there will be some kind of operations in the Eagle Ford in the short term.